Well, I Got to the Border

And took some nice pictures along the way.

The plan was to ride the SIR Run for the Border 400k.  Short version - had food, ate/drank every 15 minutes, and by the time we arrived at Dan Turner's house (control, mile 145), there I was, bonking or something.  Took 45 minutes to eat a wrap and chips.  Stomach didn't improve.  Head went to all the wrong places.  Abandoned in Sedro Woolley at mile 175.

And it started out so well :-(

Stepping back from the long ones until I can figure this out.  I have been successful on rides when I was using EFS/Carbo Pro.  Maybe Perpetuem isn't for me.  I didn't drink any V8 on this ride.  Maybe I should have.  For those thinking that I poisoned myself with a Red Bull - none of that on this ride either.

But I did take pictures.

This Wasn't The Plan

At Least I Got Some Nice Pictures



Part I

June 8-9 was the SIR Olympic Peninsula 600k.  I successfully completed the ride last year, and had no reason to think it wouldn't happen again this year.

Yeah.  Well.

Started out promisingly enough - Asta and I drove up the afternoon before, went for a short bike ride around Kingston, got a massive pasta dinner and ice cream, and visited with the other riders.  Ian showed up (and we were given the rock star hotel room).  We chatted, and eventually got to bed.

Up bright and early, stuffing things back in the car, grabbing my overnight bag, getting breakfast at Mc D's (sausage McMuffin, mmm), and crossing the street to the start.  Visiting.  Standing around.

And we were off.  Leapfrogged a few riders along this stretch.  It is kind of hilly (heck, not a lot of real flat on this ride).  I had planned to stop 40 miles in at the QFC for more water, and did just that - in and out.  The first control was at 58 miles, several riders there.  I was ahead of time (from last year), got a Lunchable, some nectarines, topped up the bottles, and headed out.








Got to Matlock, again, the same clump of riders.  Ahead of time.  Banana, Doubleshot, more food from my bag, which I'd been eating all along.

Then, the stretch from Matlock to Humptulips.  I had sort of forgotten about all the hills but for Cougar Smith  Rd. (gravel, for extra bonus), and that one where Peg dropped me like a rock.  Bill K was riding with me through here.  We'd had a pretty constant headwind all day.  Lots of ups and downs, in the 6-9% range.

At one turn - surprise!  There were Dr and Mrs Dr Codfish, with chairs, cinnamon buns, fruit and beverages.  We stopped for about 10 minutes and took advantage of the offerings.



Off again, up and down...  and finally back on Hwy 101, heading north to Humptulips.  There was a serious bike repair activity going in at the store.  I learned later that a Fiber-Fix spoke was being installed.  I topped up bottles, got an ice cream bar, and sat down to eat it.  I felt crummy, and,, indeed had for awhile.  Behind time now (but still well within the time limits).  Bill took off.  I finished my ice cream as Dominique and Annie arrived.  Took off, but I was cold, so came back to the parking lot to add some layers.  Off again.

Got a few miles along and stopped to pull on the knee warmers.  It wasn't cold, either.  20 miles later we were at the Lake Quinault control.  I ate some Greek Yogurt and a V-8, and took some endurolytes.  Still didn't feel all that great, but we all pushed on.



It was hard work.  A few miles along on Hwy 101, I saw a rider sitting on the guardrail.  It was Joe L, and he'd broken his crankarm.  And something in my head just gave it up, and I pulled over to join him.

Of course NOW, I realize I should have eaten a little more and kept going, but my head had totally checked out.  Or consumed one of those 5 Hr Energy things.  Or eaten a gel.  150 miles.

John P showed up and collected us - we went on to the next control (Kalaloch), where they were feeding riders who arrived after the store closed.  Pretty sunset.



Then on to Forks.  I don't remember the drive, because I conked out.  Vinnie fed us big bowls of pasta.  Took me awhile to eat.  We grabbed our drop bags, and went on to the NEXT control - the park entrance at mile 219.  I don't remember that either.  I eventually woke up in the front seat of John's Element, scraped myself out, and joined the fun, chatting with and feeding riders.











Heidi dubbed it "Rando Cafe 219" and she was cooking up awesome tortilla-lunch meat-cheese quesadillas, and made me eat one.  I passed out all my ride snacks, because I wasn't going to eat them.  Vinnie showed up after the Forks control closed.  He cooked more bacon.  Lots more bacon.  Everyone was eating it right from the pan.



Annie and Dominique showed up, and after they left, we all broke down and packed the control (pop-up, chairs, tables, food, stove...)

Our bikes were moved to someone's pickup; Joe and I piled in, and we then drove all the way to Kingston.  Snacked, chatted, sat around, got a shower, and since it wasn't late, and I wasn't falling asleep, we elected to drive home that evening.

Part II

So, no 600.  After long conversations with Michelle, I arranged to ride the Portland Portland Portland 600k perm with David and Kevin on Jun 29-30.



We got a heat wave. With humidity.





Reasonable enough progress to Ripplebrook Ranger Station.  It was getting hot.  30 more miles of climbing to the 4000' summit before dropping down to Detroit.  More hot.  A few "I want to lay down and DIE" moments.  Headwind.  We cheered every time it clouded up (not often enough), and were happy to be riding on the side of the road with the most chance of shade.





I was getting dozy at the summit (at 2pm!), so ate some caffeinated things and took a 20 minute nap.  All good for the descent, but we had a serious headwind there, as well.  My headlight did charge my phone :-)

A pause at Detroit for snacks and liquid refill, then more of a descent down Hwy 22.  Only 1 close call (and it was deliberate) with an idiot in a van.

My stomach started checking out on the climb, and never really cleared up.  And I do not like those shoes. The previous model had MUCH stiffer soles. Pearl Izumi X-Alp Seek V, if you were wondering.



Another nap in Scio (with caffeine appetizer), then off to find covered bridges.  It got dark, and everyone admired my headlight.





Wandering around, we went to the Stayton covered bridge, and then the Safeway.  Got off the bike and just sat.  And made a phone call.  When the guys came out of the store, I went in and bought whatever looked good (watermelon, a roll, a banana, a Coke, and some Laughing Cow cheese).  They went on, and I napped on the bench until Fitz came to collect me.

Conclusion

No Big Wild Ride this summer.  Ended my 4th R-12 streak.  Maybe nothing longer than a 200k for awhile.

More pretty pics here and here

Moving to the Top of the List - The Olympia SIR 300k

Which list, you might ask?  The possibly the hardest ride I have ever done list.  This one moves past my last Bikenfest outing.

Because of someone's baby shower date scheduling, I needed to ride a different 300k. (It would be really, really bad if Grandma wasn't there.  Really bad.  Especially since Aunt and Great-Grandma won't be there.)

Susan and Asta thought they'd participate as well, so a close to the start and the finish hotel room was secured.  They both appeared at the same time on Friday afternoon, and, having removed one rear seat, and removing one front wheel (Asta's), we successfully stuffed 3 bikes, 3 cyclists, and their stuff into the Element and drove north.  Of course on a Friday evening it took FOREVER to drive through Portland and cross the I-5 bridge.  But we didn't care.  We had company.



Dinner in Olympia at Casa Ramos.  Some people were overwhelmed by the choices in the menu :-)  Me, I figure it isn't my last meal and try to order something not too big and not too expensive.

Susan played the part of the GPS for the last couple miles, successful arrival, check-in,... Asta: "wait, aren't we skipping something?" We checked in while you were napping; didn't want to disturb you :-)

Did I mention that I had a cold, with a bit of a cough, and a sometimes exuberant runny nose?  Yeah.

Good night all.  Up at 5:30, and I will say for 3 women and 1 bathroom, we all did a great job of getting ourselves up, dressed, and down to the breakfast room with our bikes.  They had a great breakfast selection.  There were some similarly-dressed folks also eating breakfast, so we all introduced ourselves.



Then last minute business and out the door to the Safeway.  We rode by the back side of the brewery, pretty cool.  Lots of riders at the Safeway; checked in and greeted all my SIR rider friends who I hadn't seen for several months.  But wait...  where was Peg?  where was Narayan?  My hope of having some company at some points in the ride evaporated.



Off we went, and it started to rain.  And rain.  And rain.  (keep repeating that refrain until I tell you to stop)

SE into a headwind (keep repeating that as well) for the first 15 miles to Rainier.  It was described as a climb, but it wasn't too much of one.  Riders pulled away, and, as expected, found myself riding solo.  Somewhere along there I passed Susan, fixing a flat.  She said she was ok, so I went on.

Found Vinnie and Josh in the parking lot of the Texaco.  We chatted a bit, they signed my card, and pointed me at the trail.  Right.  I knew that.  Nice trail, and eventually I recognized the tall trees and athletic fields - I had arrived in Tenino.  On STP, this is the stop with the really big cookies.  Not today.  Off the trail, through Tenino, and pressing onward through Bucoda to Centralia.

I stopped at the Pearl St. Market to get more water.  Every time I paused, I would stuff a chunk of fruitcake in my mouth, so I wasn't hungry, but I did need more water.  Allen F and Jason H had also stopped, but I think they left before I did.

Susan O caught up as I was headed into Centralia proper, and I followed her through and out.  The heavy rain had conspired to cause some leakage through the vinyl cover of my map pocket and through my 9x12 ziploc bag.  Time for another one.  Note to self: carry backup cue sheet in another ziploc bag in the front bag...  Not so bad that I could not figure out what it said.

From Centralia we headed SE on Alpha-Centralia Rd.  I remembered this from coming the other way on my first-ever 600k, after recovering from a bonk.  So, perhaps I was thinking it would be challenging.  Now, there WERE a couple of steep ramps, but really, not so much.  Climb up the ramp and roll up and down.  Pretty. (still raining).  I thought I was hallucinating, that I would occasionally see a rider up ahead, but probably not.  I started to notice hail by the roadside.  Lots of hail.  I guess I missed it.  Did see one rider headed back, and another standing under a porch on a utility building of some sort.  Before I got to 508, I realized I was not hallucinating, and eventually caught up with Jason H.

There was an info control at the turn onto Cinebar Rd, but instead we found John P ("I've abandoned all thoughts of riding on the Oregon side for our fleche route") and Rick B.  Cards signed, a little bit of visiting.  Rick: "we are watching your SPOT".  John: "Where do you put it?"  I pointed him back to Little Pink Bear.  The bear finally has a job :-)  My comment to Rick - "I can see places where it is not raining.  We are not riding in any of those places."

Pushed off to find Mayfield Lake and Mossyrock and the loopy bit out of there.  By now, the rain had actually let up.  Maybe even stopped.  Dropped down to the lake, again leapfrogging Jason.  I pulled into a handy park structure for a quick stop, but found him on the bridge across the lake.

Now we started up, climbing a couple hundred feet to Mossyrock.  Some of those feet were very compressed.  I stopped for a minute, and could see Kathy and Charlie walking up ahead, but they pushed off before I got there.

Into Mossyrock and the grocery.  Mindful of my coach's instruction to Eat More Protein, I rummaged around in the sandwich case, finally settling on roast beef/cheese.  Chatted with Kathy and Charlie as they finished up their sandwich. Looks like they ate as much as I did.  Had half a sandwich, but the bread sort of made me gag.  Topped off my bottles and left.



The next stretch was quite pretty, and not raining.  More climbing winding up Perkins Rd, the highest point in the ride.  I had peeled off the raincoat in hopes of getting my top layers to dry out.  And they did.  My feet never did dry out all day.  Down for awhile, then up again as we passed the lake.  Mostly downhill, with bits of up, but heading into the W part of the headwind.  Yup, still with us.  Lots of farms along here, with llamas and cattle.  Passed Susan fixing another flat.

Crossed under I-5 about mile 107, heading SW (into the wind), and annoyingly back up to our next control in Vader.  Strangely, my body was trying to sleep.  Really, really big yawns.  Couldn't stop them.  Finally paused and had a gel with caffeine.  Got to Vader, and Allen and Jason were there.  I made myself a rando mocha (more caffeine, yes please!), and chatted with the cashier while I drank it.  "You've got one more really bad hill coming up".  I remembered it from the Two County Double Metric Century of many years ago.  It was painful on the speedy bike with only 60 miles in (I didn't know what randonneuring was, back in those days), and I was not looking forward to it. Topped up the liquids again, stuffed a chunk of fruitcake in my mouth and headed off.



Started raining.  Blah.  Sucked down a gel before the hill.  There might have been one or two short bits of walking.  But I got to the top and headed down, after zipping everything up.  Rain....

But!  Finally!  At mile 120, headed NORTH!  YAY!  Kind of beat up by now, pedaling along, and at Boistfort Rd, turned west again into the wind.   I noticed my other blinkie (I had swapped batteries on one before the ride) kept turning off, so I took a brief stop to change the batteries.  The ride to Pe Ell was again, wonderfully agriculturally pretty, but it soon started winding uphill.

Down into Pe Ell.  This was a control, and there was a store, and a tuna sandwich.  I managed to eat half of it, and borrowed Allen's towel to wipe my clear lenses off before installing them.  It was officially getting dark-ish, but not dark yet.

Free-range goats along here.  Also signs for free-range cattle, but I didn't see any of those.

Not to far out of Pe Ell, past the other end of Boistfort Rd, I spotted blinkies up ahead.  Was I catching up with  Jason?  No.  But I did find a Secret Control, with Ian, Corey and Josh.  And a covered area, heater, chair and hot chocolate. And a blanket.  And a couple of welcome hugs.  There was indeed a shortcut, if one wanted to climb back out of Pe Ell and go over Curtis Hill.  Ow.  No.  I have done it, and got my fastest ever descending speed on the other side.  Ow.  So, after half the cup of hot chocolate (Allen had come and gone), I started out again.

More sleepies.  I stopped and dug some caffeinated mints out of my bag and crunched on those.  It seemed to work, and I didn't have any more dozy episodes.

There were still a good number of miles to ride before the left onto Scheuber Rd.  I finally had to remove my glasses, because the oncoming traffic would light up the rain drops on them and totally blind me.  I never did catch up to Allen.  I had looked at the turn on Google Street Map, and it pretty much looked like a turn in the middle of nowhere.  I could only hope that the turn was marked (Washington is pretty good at that).

There was a gas station on the right; I pulled in for more water and directions.  I was just about there.  One patron wanted to know if this was dangerous.  Well, no one had tried to kill me yet.  Left onto Schueber.  Listened to about a million frogs croaking. Eight miles later I was at the Centralia Safeway, the last on course control.  I was really, really cold.  Going into hypothermia cold.  The staff at Safeway was not helpful, and that was the control.  So I got my card signed after waiting around and went over to the Texaco convenience store.  The cashier pointed me at the hot water tap.  Filled my thermal jug and made calories in a bottle with an added teabag.  Drank some hot water.  Finally quit shaking.  Twenty more miles to go.  I decided to wear all my gloves and all my wool hats.  That helped.

North again.  Heavy rain. Pedal pedal pedal pedal...  I didn't even know what time it was, just that I would finish in time.  Not too worried about that.  It was so cold.  Case Rd felt three times longer than advertised.  Look!  A Stop Sign! Oh darn, Maytown Rd.  More to go.  Pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal.  Not even a place to take shelter from the rain.  Several light-years later, I arrived at the end of Case Rd, cut under the freeway, and continued, again, on Case Rd.  A few more turns, all feeling much longer than they should have, and I could finally see the Motel 6 sign up ahead.

Headed toward the blinkies, leaned the bike against something, went inside and started toweling off.  It was 2am.  Signed things, and sat there long enough to quit shaking (again).  Headed off toward the Best Western, except I turned the wrong way at the light and got an extra couple of long blocks tour of Tumwater.

Finally, back where I was supposed to be.  It was a very hard choice, shower or bed?  If I could have slept in the shower, I would have.

Next morning heard Susan and Asta rustling around and heading off to breakfast.  Except their bikes were still in the room.  Not good control efficiency.  Fell back to sleep; woke up some time later.  Bikes still there...  After deciding that I should probably not get breakfast in my pjs, quickly got dressed and walked down.  All the riders staying in the hotel were rehashing the ride.  Susan said that the forecasted 25 mph headwind and thunderstorms were what called it off, and would I mind having company on the drive home?  No, not at all.  After an extended breakfast (seconds on scrambled eggs with ketchup) we finally went back to pack up and load the car.  Susan offered to drive.  Even better.  Pre-drive walk over to Starbucks.



Arrived home, unloaded, got all the soaking wet cycling gear out of the bag and became one with the chair.

My cough let me know exactly how much it appreciated this much fun.  Worked from home three days so as not to scare the co-workers.

Finally getting better now.

Bike computer claims 7900 vertical feet
RideWithGPS claims 7700 vertical feet
In either case, not an excessive number for a 300k.
for the whole day 193.5mi, avg 11.62.  oh, that's slow...

SIR 200km Brevet

Husband: "why can't you stay in Portland and go for a long ride in the rain here?"



He was referring to my expedition to Seattle to ride the Seattle International Randonneurs 200km.

Why indeed? (Lynne outs herself here) I needed an ACP/RUSA 200km ride for March, to keep up the string of rides for the RUSA R-12 Award. Cecil and I are pre-riding the Birkie Brevet on March 29, but the ride itself is credited to the official ride date, which is on April 5. Besides, there was the lure of riding somewhere completely different. Somewhere where I had absolutely No Clue of where I was.

I arranged to carpool with Bill. The ride organizer offered up his guest bed. As the ride started right around the corner from his house... Wow. Can you imagine getting up and STARTING your brevet from the front door? Riding two blocks to the start?

The weather was forecasted to be, well, not to put too fine a point on it - wet. Temps mostly in the 40's. Start at 7am (sunrise around 7:30am). So, which piece of new gear did I need for this ride? A helmet cover was indicated. I recently bought a Bell Metropolis helmet, because it has a loop on the back to hold a light, and a nifty little integral mirror accessory. It also has a fitted helmet cover. Said helmet cover has little buttonholes for the helmet brim attachment points to fit through, and is curved to not interfere with the rear light mounting loop. I have a headlight that I attach as well. No holes for that. But I have the skills and tools, so two additional buttonholes were added Friday evening, while I was waiting for Bill to come by.

Off to Seattle (in the rain), with an expedient dinner stop at Burgerville in Centralia. Only on evenings before rides or the ride day, do I get to eat with impunity. Mmmm. Cheeseburger and fries.

Found Greg's house in Kent, no problem. Greg and Mary are really great folks. Their house is just like ours was a few years ago - random teenagers wandering in and out, and one is never quite sure how many will be there in the morning. I think a Guitar Hero session was going on somewhere.

I planned to get up at 5:30, eat my pbj sandwich, and head to the start. Over 100 riders had preregistered. So, proceeding as planned, got up and headed downstairs. I found Mary, their daughter and daughter's friend already up. Made my thermos of Gatorade tea, ate my sandwich and visited.

Then on with the shoes and booties, stowed my sandwiches, put on my wool cap, helmet, glasses, gloves with REI mountaineering shells on top (waterproof! I wanted waterproof!), jacket... and up the little hill. Bicycles and riders everywhere. It was dark and raining, but I managed to find Cecil in the crowd. Also saw Sal and Peg.

At 7am we all headed out; a long line of red taillights (some solid, some blinking) shiny through the rain. Daughter and her friend were out on the sidewalk, in the dark and rain, cheering us on. Cecil and I rode together all day. We followed the crowd. It eventually spread out, and we had to look at our maps from time to time. We rode through Kent, heading west, and along Dash Point (I still do not have an overview of the route in my head; bear with me). Nice views of Puget Sound, there.

Then to our first control at a grocery. Mark Thomas was there, signing our control cards. After determining that there were no functioning restrooms, Cecil and I ate some muffin and headed off. Up a hill (more great views of the Sound), then riding. Cecil started to worry that we had missed the turn onto Enchanted Parkway. I didn't think so, and we all compared odometers. By then Nat had joined us (Nat from the Bingen 200k in October - that was his first-ever brevet). His comment: "I'm sticking with you two because you looked like you were experienced at this!" I'm falling over laughing, because, yeah, sure, I can read a map, and follow navigation instructions, but we were all in completely unknown territory! Nat isn't used to riding where there are actual road choices and lots of urban traffic - he's from the Tri-Cities. After determining that no, we hadn't missed it, we rode on and found it.

Crossed I-5, rode around a little more, and found ourselves in Auburn. Narrow, quaint little main street, there. We stopped for a train. My left foot was not unclipping, and I almost fell over. Embarrassing, that. Another rider introduced himself - he's Gene from the Cascade Bike Club forums, so we've met electronically. :-) He said once we got through Auburn, we'd be out in the country.

And so we were. Many delightful and scenic miles (there was even a period of non-rain) on Green Valley Rd - farms with horses and shaggy, horned Herefords, sheep, goats, flowers. Flat, too. We rode past Flaming Geyser park, where Cecil and I learned that there is indeed a burning swamp gas emission, but "geyser" perhaps overstates it. Probably more like "pilot light".

I recognized the "bridge to nowhere" that John C. has on his flickr page, as we rode past it.

Then a stretch of climbing, of the 8% variety, working our way to the fabled Black Diamond Bakery (and control). I dropped behind on the climb and came around a corner and headed up the hill. I hadn't flipped my map over, and so missed the turn onto Jones Lake Rd. Got to the top of that hill (not THAT long), and checked the map. Ooops. Down the hill, around the corner, up another, less steep and long, hill and there was Mark, signing cards, and Cecil telling me she'd grabbed a table.

Peeled off the overmitts, went in, dumped my helmet, gloves, and card on the table and went to get an apple-walnut-whole wheat-cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting and a hot chocolate. It was big. I really tried, but I couldn't eat the whole thing. Being at a table full of randonneurs, that wasn't a problem. My feet were refusing to warm up, so I put on some chemical toe warmers. Eric and Maggie came in and got real bowls of soup and rolls. Bill came in as Cecil and I were leaving. Mark gave us each a chunk of his enormous (dinner-plate-sized) cookie, and we reassembled, and headed off.

Rode along interestingly named roads (Kent-Kangley, Retreat Kanaskat, Cumberland Kanaskat), working our way to the east edge of Enumclaw. There was a Secret Control on that stretch :-). More riding through open farmland, all still very soggy from the winter rains. Then left onto Hwy 410, where we'd ride to the turnaround point at Greenwater (17 miles). The altitude increased, and there was snow beside the road in places. The rain returned. There were a few climbs, but it was mostly a gentle grade. Nice views, although it is rumored there is an enormous mountain out there, which we could not see. We followed the river on up, and watched the faster riders heading back down. My light, which had by this point decided that it did not need to be on (auto sensor), kept flicking on during the climb parts, which were shaded.

Eventually we arrived at Greenwater, where one store patron pronounced us all "crazy". Bought a Payday bar, and had my card signed by the store clerk. I changed my inner gloves to shortfingers, Smartwool liner gloves and old, beat up ragg wool gloves. Cecil changed her socks and got more handwarmers for her gloves. Maggie's feet were cold, and we offered her some toe warmers, but she passed, because then she'd have warm feet, and Eric and Brian wouldn't.

13 miles of mostly downhill, now. All the skiers, boarders and snowmobilers had decided to head home from Crystal Mountain for the day. Most of them passed us at a safe distance (yet still at high speed), but the occasional truck towing a trailer would not, and that was a little disturbing.

It had stopped raining at Greenwater, and the sun came out.

Finally got to the turnoff onto Mud Mt Dam road. Wonderful pavement, no traffic at all. And then a downhill. Even better. Then into Enumclaw, and to the Circle K, our last on-course control. I was dragging at that point, so I had some Ibuprofen, which I should have taken at Greenwater, Gatorade, half a banana and a caffeine-enhanced Gu. Results were immediately forthcoming.

It had definitely warmed up. All of 45 degrees. Cecil's bike computer had reported a low of 36? at the start, warming up to 40, dropping to 38 at Greenwater. So, not a warm day, by any means.

Cecil and I set out on the last 20 miles. I think we headed north from Enumclaw. I knew there were at least two more climbs in there. Flat horse country, then rollers, then down 212 Way. At the bottom, we found ourselves at the intersection with the bridge to nowhere again, this time heading up Auburn-Black Diamond Road. 1.7 miles. Cecil said it was mostly 8-9% with significant bits of 10%. (She has a nifty-feature-laden new bike computer, can you tell?). After that climb we wandered around some more, then got onto 132nd, and then 240th, for the last climb of the day, with the ride finish at the top.

It was still daylight. Novel! I finished at 7:03pm. Peeled off all the wet and dirty outer layers, and went inside for a big bowl of chili, salad, fruit, cornbread, chips, nuts, cookies...

Got to meet some of the other riders, plus visited with Peg and Maggie, and other riders I'd met on previous outings.

Nat finished, and we all cheered and took pictures. The shower came open, so I got to shower and put on clean clothes. I packed up all my stuff, and took my knitting downstairs to visit and wait for Bill. He finished at around 13 hours.

More visiting, etc. Bill and I finally left around 9:30pm.

I didn't take any pictures - the overmitts preclude getting the camera out, taking the picture and putting everything safely away. But there are pics here:

Jim Carson's pics
Cecil's pics